article · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Waste management governance in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria, faces severe structural and operational deficits across its local government areas. An assessment covering residents, businesses, key informants, and public waste sites revealed that over half of respondents experience irregular or absent collection services, driving nearly seventy percent to rely on open dumping, burning, or drainage disposal. Key institutional dimensions, particularly financial capacity and accountability, consistently perform below acceptable standards. Governance factors account for almost two-thirds of the variation in service effectiveness, with operational capacity and institutional accountability acting as the primary predictors. Furthermore, regulatory enforcement doubles the likelihood of proper disposal compliance. Current operations suffer from vehicle shortages, fragmented mandates, funding delays, and weak monitoring. Sustainable improvement requires route-level management, predictable financing, structured community oversight, digital data and complaint tracking, and phased circular-economy initiatives integrating informal waste workers.
Poor municipal waste management leads to open dumping and environmental degradation across expanding urban centres. By identifying institutional governance, operational capacity, and enforcement as the primary drivers of service failure, this research demonstrates that infrastructure alone cannot solve urban waste crises. Effective solutions require addressing institutional coordination, accountability mechanisms, and the formal inclusion of informal waste recovery workers.
The findings highlight operational needs that private contractors, urban management consultancies, and technology providers could address, including integrated waste data platforms, complaint-tracking systems, and circular-economy models that integrate informal waste workers. The research is analytical and diagnostic rather than a tested product, placing it at an early stage where public-private partnerships and municipal reform frameworks would need to be formally designed and adopted by urban authorities.
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Municipal solid waste management is a critical urban service whose performance depends not only on equipment and disposal infrastructure but also on institutional coordination, operational finance, regulatory enforcement, accountability, and citizen participation. This study examined waste management governance across eight local government areas in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria. A convergent mixed-methods design was used to combine a survey of 423 adult residents and business operators with 23 key-informant interviews, eight focus-group discussions involving 72 participants, structured observations at 64 public waste locations, and a documentary review. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, analysis of variance, correlation, multiple linear regression, and binary logistic regression, whereas qualitative evidence was analyzed thematically and integrated through joint comparison. More than half of the respondents (56.2%) reported no regular collection or collection less than once weekly, and 69.7% relied primarily on open dumping, roadside or drainage disposal, or open burning. All governance dimensions scored below the scale midpoint; financial capacity (M = 2.15) and accountability (M = 2.17) were rated weakest. The governance variables jointly explained 64.4% of the variance in service effectiveness, with operational capacity being the strongest predictor (beta = .268), followed by accountability (beta = .195). Regulatory enforcement doubled the odds of appropriate disposal (odds ratio [OR] = 2.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.34, 3.15]), while collection frequency also improved compliance. Qualitative and observational findings confirmed vehicle shortages, delayed funding, fragmented mandates, weak data and complaint systems, and limited integration of informal waste workers. Sustainable reform requires predictable operating finance, route-level performance management, integrated data and complaint systems, proportionate enforcement, community oversight, and phased circular-economy initiatives that incorporate existing informal recovery networks
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DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21933777
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